Dispenser for flexible wall tube containers

ABSTRACT

A dispenser especially adapted for the controlled extrusion of relatively viscous materials from heavy-duty plastic tubes. The tube is simultaneously collapsed and wound upon a mandrel in such a manner that once collapsed, it will not expand; and once wound, it will not unwind. A tube-collapsing roller is mounted for planetary movement relative to a winding mandrel through the intermediary of a spring wire. The spring wire is formed with looplike projections on either end of the roller to bias the same toward the mandrel which has angularly offset turning lugs at either end of a tubeengaging periphery. Simultaneous counterrotative manual manipulation of one of the lugs and projections results in the collapse and winding of a tube about the mandrel. The offset relationship of the lugs insures that one or the other of the same will always be in position for ready manipulation and the loop projections impart a sufficient resilient bias to the roller to maintain the tube in a wound, collapsed position on the mandrel.

United States Patent [72] Inventor Marion A. Duiker 1974 CollingswoodRoad, Columbus, Ohio 43221 [21] Appl. No. 58,954 [22] Filed July 28,I970 [45] Patented Dec. 21, 1971 [54] DISPENSER FOR FLEXIBLE WALL TUBECONTAINERS 4 Claims, 3 Drawing Figs.

[52] US. Cl. 222/99, 242/96 [51] Int. Cl 865d 35/32 [50] Field of Search222/97-103,.

' 212,213,214,386.5, 206;22l/60; 254/186 I-IC; 242/85, 85.], 96, 85.5,55

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,037,824 4/1936 Sachs222/97 2,903,162 9/1959 Regan 222/99 FOREIGN PATENTS 78,392 2/1894Germany 222/97 Primary Examiner-Stanley I-l. Tollberg AssistantExaminerLarry Martin AttarneyColton & Stone ABSTRACT: A dispenserespecially adapted for the controlled extrusion of relatively viscousmaterials from heavyduty plastic tubes. The tube is simultaneouslycollapsed and wound upon a mandrel in such a manner that once collapsed,it will not expand; and once wound, it will not unwind.

A tube-collapsing roller is mounted for planetary movement relative to awinding mandrel through the intermediary of a spring wire. The springwire is formed with looplike projections on either end of the roller tobias the same toward the mandrel which has angularly offset turning lugsat either end of a tube-engaging periphery. Simultaneous counterrotativemanual manipulation of one of the lugs and projections results in thecollapse and winding of a tube about the mandrel. The offsetrelationship of the lugs insures that one or the other of the same willalways be in position for ready manipulation and the loop projectionsimpart a sufficient resilient bias to the roller to maintain the tube ina wound, collapsed position on the mandrel.

mamas new 1971 31628596 INVENTOR MARION A. DUIKER Fm 3 BY nJfilATTORNEY5.

DISPENSER FOR FLEXIBLE WALL TUBE CONTAINERS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONCollapsible tube containers have been in use for many years and have, inthe past, consisted primarily of nonresilient, thinwalled metalstructures which, when collapsed and/or wound on a dispensing mandrel,had no tendency to reassume their original tubelike form. The lowrupture strengthof such tube constructions generally limited their useto the containment of low-viscosity materials such as dentrifice and thelike. Many new tube container applications became feasible with theadvent of the plastics age when tough, resilient plastics such asclearvinyl and opaque polyethylene, characterized by their high rupturestrength, became readily available at low cost. The very characteristicsthat make these materials most desirable for the containment ofrelatively viscous materials in industrial and other heavy dutyapplication, i.e. their tough, resilient nature, creates substantialproblems in their dispensement and particularly where an extended,closely controlled extrusion rate is desired such as in the expressionof a tubecontained caulking compound for example. Exemplary of theforegoing is the tendency of a tough, flexible wall tube container toreassume its original shape after being manually collapsed or to unwind,in a manner analogous to a coil spring, after being rolled either uponitself or on a conventional tube winding mandrel. Upon such anoccurrence, a reverse flow toward the closed partially emptied end ofthe tube occurs which not only makes it necessary to again squeeze thefull length of the tube during a subsequent extrusion operation but alsomakes it virtually impossible to obtain an even rate of extrusion. Whenextruding by hand, a point is reached at which a new grip must be takenon the tube to continue the extrusion and it is at this time when a backflow will occur accentuating the uneven extrusion rate that ischaracteristic of attempted hand-controlled extrusions. This problem ispartially overcome by the use of a conventional winding mandrel, such asshown in US. Pat. No. 3,257,038, since it is unnecessary to releasepressure on the tube during one continuous extrusion; however when oneextrusion is finished and the tube released prior to a subsequent usage,the tube unwinds under its own inherent bias.

The tube-collapsing assemblies that have previously been used inconjunction with winding mandrels have not been capable of inducingcomplete tube collapse simultaneously with tight securement of thecollapsed tube portion against subsequent enlargement which wouldproduce an intake of air into the tube and consequent caking of thematerial. Exemplary are the disclosures in US. Pat. Nos. 1,941,631 and3,371,823.

Another problem that has, apparently, gone unrecognized in connectionwith the controlled collapse of tough, resilient tubes containing highlyviscous materials relates to the magnitude of physical strength requiredto extrude the contents, even at an uncontrolled rate.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention is directed to an improvedcombination of winding mandrel and tube-collapsing assembly which aremounted for counterrotative movement. The mandrel and tube collapsingassembly have projecting portions, at opposite ends thereof, providinglever arms which may be grasped and squeezed to produce a mechanicaladvantage in the expression of the tube contents. The lever arms onopposite ends of the mandrel are angularly offset so that one or theother of these arms is constantly in an advantageous position for amanual squeezing action in conjunction with one of the projectingportions on the tube-collapsing assembly.

The tube-collapsing assembly is formed from a spring wire whose oppositeintumed ends are joumaled on the axis of mandrel rotation so that theaforesaid squeezing action of the lever arms results in counterrotativemovement of the parts and a tube-collapsing roller joumaled on thespring wire undergoes a planetary movement with respect to the mandrel.

The wire is so bent, in the formation of the projecting portions, as toproduce a bias on the roller to maintain the tube collapsed thereby inthe wound collapsed position at all times.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the tubedispenser and partially collapsed tube;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line 2-2 of FIG. I; and

FIG. 3 is a part sectional and part elevational view as taken along theline 3-3 of FIG. 2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In the drawings are illustrateda flexible wall container 10 whose closed end 12 has been inserted in aslot 14 formed in the central tube-engaging portion 16 of awindingmandrel 18 having angularly offset lever arms or turning lugs 20, 22 ateither end thereof. A tube-collapsing assembly 24 consists oftube-collapsing roller 26 joumaled on the central portion of a springwire 28 whose intumed ends 30 are joumaled in blind bores 32 formed onthe axis of mandrel 18. Intermediate the roller 26 and each of theintumed ends, wire 28 is formed with projecting loop portions 34, 36which have a greater radial extent, relative to the axis of mandrel 18,than do the corresponding mandrel lugs 20, 22 so that the lugs andprojections may undergo relative rotation.

The initial formation of spring wire 28 is such that, in the initialunflexed condition of loops 34, 36, roller 26 will engage the surface 16of mandrel 18. It will be apparent that as a tube is wound aboutperiphery 18, as shown in the drawings, loops 34, 36 will flex toaccommodate the increased effective radius thereof and exert a centrallydirected radial bias on roller 26 that increases as the effective radiusof the tube-engaging portion of the mandrel increases. This bias clampsroller 26 against the collapsed tube portion and is sufficiently strongto resist the tendency of the collapsed tube wall to reassume itsoriginal shape. Similarly, the clamping force applied is sufficient toresist that force component derived from the collapsed resilient tubewall acting to move roller 26 counterclockwise as viewed in FIG. 3.

In operation, the closed end 12 of a flexible wall tube 10 is insertedin slot 14 and assembly 24 is rotated, relative to the mandrel, toinitially clamp the tube end between surface 16 and roller 26.Thereafter, the thumb and forefinger of both hands are alternately usedto impart relative counterrotation to the mandrel and the tubecollapsing assembly. Thus, with reference to FIG. 3, when it is desiredto extrude material from tube 10 loop 36 and lug 22 are simultaneouslycounterrotated by the left thumb and forefinger, respectively, in thedirections indicated by arrows 38, 40. After approximately of relativerotation, the lug 22 and projection 36 will have moved into substantialalignment as indicated by the relative positions of lugs 20 andprojection 34 in FIG. I so that any further squeezing action applied bythe left thumb and forefinger would be ineffective to impart furtherrelative counterrotation. At this time, however, lug 20 will bepositioned substantially at right angles to projection 34 so that theright thumb and forefinger may be used to continue the relativecounterrotation. Thus it will be seen that a continuous and unvaryingcollapsing force may be applied to tube 10 by the alternate applicationof squeezing action at the opposite ends of the dispenser since it willbe obvious that squeezing pressure should be commenced at one end of thedispenser before the squeezing action is completed at the other endthereof. When the dispenser and/or tube are released, theroller-clamping force applied by the bias of loops 34, 36 is sufficientto retain tube 10 in the wound, collapsed position prior to a subsequentuse.

What is claimed is:

1. A dispenser for flexible wall tube containers, comprising; a windingmandrel having a central tube-engaging periphery and angularly oflsetlugs at opposite ends thereof, a tube-col- 2. The dispenser of claim 1wherein said mandrel includes means for restraining the closed end of atube against circumferential movement relative to the tube-engagingperiphery of the mandrel.

3. The dispenser of claim 1 wherein said means comprises a spring wirehaving opposite ends thereof joumaled on the rotational axis of saidmandrel.

4. The dispenser of claim 3 wherein said projections comprise wireloops.

1. A dispenser for flexible wall tube containers, comprising; a windingmandrel having a central tube-engaging periphery and angularly offsetlugs at opposite ends thereof, a tube-collapsing assembly mounted onsaid mandrel and rotatable relative thereto for concomitantlycollapsing, winding and retaining the collapsed portion of a tube onsaid tube-engaging periphery, said tubecollapsing assembly includingmeans biasing a tube-collapsing roller toward the tube engagingperiphery of said mandrel, and said means including upstandingprojections at opposite ends of said roller and adjacent said lugswhereby counterrotative motion may be imparted to the mandrel andtube-collapsing assembly by the simultaneous manipulation of one of saidlugs and the adjacent projection.
 2. The dispenser of claim 1 whereinsaid mandrel includes means for restraining the closed end of a tubeagainst circumferential movement relative to the tube-engaging peripheryof the mandrel.
 3. The dispenser of claim 1 wherein said means comprisesa spring wire having opposite ends thereof journaled on the rotationalaxis of said mandrel.
 4. The dispenser of claim 3 wherein saidprojections comprise wire loops.